Dorian Dervite in action in the Wembley Cup match between Spurs and Barcelona in 2009

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As Dorian Dervite waits with his seven-month-old son for an emergency flight back to France from Cyprus, he can't help but let his mind wander back to his years at Tottenham Hotspur and reflect on what might have been.

When the big, Lille-born defender arrived in north London as a fresh-faced 18-year-old, he had the world at his feet with clubs queuing up to sign him before he chose the white of Spurs.

Dervite had captained teams throughout the age groups of France's international set-up and he was the next big thing in European football.

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What came next, across four years spent working with Martin Jol, Juande Ramos and Harry Redknapp and playing alongside the likes of Robbie Keane, Edgar Davids, Ledley King, Luka Modric and Gareth Bale, threw up every dramatic and frustrating twist and turn that a young footballer's career can take, including a brutal showdown with the chairman.

Now 31 and unemployed as of three days ago, Dervite has carved out a decent career which has taken him across Europe, but he'll always look back on his time at Tottenham Hotspur with a hint of regret, a touch of self-pity but more so an overpowering sense of pride at having been one of the lucky ones to pull on the club's shirt.

It was back in 2006 when the teenage Frenchman finally got permission from his mother to leave Lille and make the journey to N17 following a long conversation with Tottenham's sporting director Damien Comolli.

"You know how it is when you play for the national youth teams, many scouts come to watch the games," Dervite told football.london.

"It started at 15, after my first international game. I received 10 calls from different clubs. Chelsea wanted me, Fiorentina made me an offer and there was Sevilla. In France there were many clubs.

"My parents thought it was too early to go abroad. They knew my dream was to play in England. In France we used to have a television programme every weekend which would show Premier League highlights.

"I had some calls from English clubs when I was 15, but my mother said I had to finish my studies. So we made an agreement that when I had finished them I would go to England."

He added: "So I continued to play for Lille [in the academy] until I finished my studies at almost 18. Then Damien Comolli came to have a chat with me and my parents.

"It was easier because he was French. My mother was more comfortable about letting me go to a new country, knowing that Damien would be there for me if I had any problems."

For Tottenham, it was a real coup and Comolli knew it. In France the teenage defender was being tipped for the very top. He was 6ft 3ins, strong and skilful on the ball and showed leadership qualities every time he stepped on to the pitch.

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Dervite travelled across the Channel alone to England, moving in with a local family and another young foreign talent trying to make his way at the club.

"I was alone but the first year I was in digs with another player, Tomas Pekhart from the Czech Republic," he remembered.

"It was good to be with him and living in someone's house because I was only just 18 and it could have been very difficult.

"France and England are very close countries on the map but they are very different!

"When I first joined I was lucky because there were a few French-speaking players. There was Benoit Assou-Ekotto. He helped me a lot during my time at Tottenham.

"Also there was Teemu Tainio and later Pascal Chimbonda, Younes Kaboul and Steed Malbranque as well as Didier Zokora.

"I was training half of the time with the first team and half with the reserves, so when I was with the first team I could speak to those players. It made the adaptation quite easy."

Dervite made an instant impression on everyone at Tottenham, not least his new manager Martin Jol.

The Dutchman had a reputation for putting his faith in young players and Dervite was involved with the first team almost from the off, scoring on his debut in a 7-1 victory against Enfield Town in a pre-season friendly.

"Martin was so good with young players. The Dutch really like their young footballers and they know how to manage them," said Dervite.

"For me in training it was important to see he was really hard on the experienced players as well as us.

"So many managers will only act tough with the young players but he was a fair man. He would treat you the same way whether you were Edgar Davids or myself. He gave you confidence to go and do your best."

Despite his tender years, it was not long before the teenager was handed his competitive debut in the League Cup, in a fourth round tie against Port Vale at White Hart Lane.

The big centre-back started alongside Michael Dawson and earned rave reviews for his display across 120 minutes of football as Spurs edged through 3-1 after extra-time.

Dervite almost claimed the key goal on the night, his head inches away from Tom Huddlestone's floating ball from distance which ended up in the Vale net in that added time.

Dorian Dervite gets within inches of getting his head on Tom Huddlestone's strike on his debut against Port Vale

"It was like I was in a dream," he admitted as he thought back. "I was playing FIFA as these players and then one month later I was playing alongside them.

"At first I admit I was very intimidated but after a while you get used to it and you realise it's just football."

It was a Tottenham team full of characters and in particular two defenders left a real impression on the teenager.

"When I arrived in my first season the real characters were Robbie Keane, Danny Murphy, Edgar Davids and Jermaine Jenas. Paul Robinson was also a big character," he recalled.

"Ledley King was of course a big figure at the club. He was not training much with us. He would do his own thing during the week and if you were playing at the weekend he would train on Thursday and Friday.

"He was very good in training despite the fact you could tell he wasn't giving his all so he could be ready for the weekend. Then the weekend came around and he was one of the best out there every single time.

"He was so impressive. I think if he didn't have the knee problems he would have been better than Rio Ferdinand.

"He was so good to watch and so was Michael Dawson. I used to enjoy watching him play as well.

"I played alongside him against Port Vale. He was very underrated. He was also so down to earth. A really good man and I liked him a lot."

Keane was a renowned joker around the Tottenham camp, playing pranks on everyone. However, Dervite was protected from the Irishman's tricks because he had a powerful ally in his corner.

"Robbie was a joker but he wouldn't play any pranks on me. You know why? It's because I was with Benoit Assou-Ekotto at the time and nobody would mess with him," he said.

"Because I was Assou-Ekotto's 'little boy' nobody would mess with me! I was kind of protected by being with him."

Dorian Dervite with Tottenham team-mate Pascal Chimbonda

Assou-Ekotto was one of the Premier League's straight talkers, once famously admitting with brutal honesty that "I play for the money, football's not my passion".

"I think Benoit loved football but he didn't like what was around it in the professional world, all the fake people in football, the lies in the game. I think that was the part he hated," explained Dervite.

"He would also play at home with his family which tells me he loved the game. I know he loved football."

Unfortunately football can be a cruel mistress and invariably a single moment can define a career.

"I had scored in my first match, that friendly, it was a good moment for me and I then played my first proper match for Martin Jol against Port Vale and people were pleased with me," explained Dervite.

"Then in a friendly game a month or two later against Norwich I got injured and it was serious. I would be out for 18 months, almost two years.

"It was just a tackle but all of my opponent's body weight landed on my knee and my foot got stuck in the ground.

"Everything was damaged, the medial ligament, the cartilage, the meniscus, it was a big injury. The surgeon had to operate on it twice because it was so bad.

"He told me I had a 50 per cent chance that I would play football again.

"This had happened only six months in at Spurs, when I was starting to really enjoy my dream.

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"It was such a shame because I had done well in that cup game and Martin Jol told me how pleased he was with me and that I would play more for the first team and get more and more involved.

"So I went from being very happy and then suddenly this happened. It was a bad moment for me. I was alone at the time, with my family back in France.

"It was really difficult but Tottenham helped me a lot. They gave me the best surgeon in Europe and I'm still playing today so it means he did a really good job."

There are parallels with another gifted teenager within Spurs' ranks - Terry Dixon. The young Irishman was just 16 with the world at his feet, training with the first team and with a senior international call-up under his belt when he suffered a horrendous knee injury.

"I remember Terry. He was one of the best players of his generation, called up to the Ireland squad when he was just 16," said Dervite.

While Dixon's woe would continue with a second knee injury which would spark a downward spiral in his career, his French club-mate would at least return and force his way back into the first team set-up at Tottenham, even if he still believes he could have done more.

"If I'm honest I think the injury kind of killed me. After that I was never the same player," admitted Dervite.

"I've still had a career but it will always be frustrating. I'll always feel that if I didn't have that injury I'd have achieved better things than I have. I'm still playing though so I have to look at the good side of it."

Dorian Dervite during Spur' pre-season tour in Hong Kong

While Dervite was in the final stages of recovery, Spurs made a change with a new man at the helm. Jol had been ruthlessly dispatched with Juande Ramos lured from Sevilla.

It was a very different period at the club and while recovering from his injury, the defender could see why it was unlikely to work out in the long term for Ramos.

"He didn't used to speak too much. Gus Poyet, who was a good guy, used to do all of the talking for him," said Dervite.

"Ramos would give the instructions and Gus would tell us all. The manager couldn't speak English.

"He was very successful in Spain but he hasn't been so successful elsewhere and I think it's because he didn't speak other languages.

"If you can't do that then how can you work? For me it's not normal."

Ramos' own dismissal came less than a year after joining the club, not long after lifting the League Cup.

His departure coincided with Dervite enjoying a renaissance in his Tottenham career.

The Frenchman was sent out on loan to aid his development in January of 2009 and spent six months in League One with Southend.

He thoroughly enjoyed the experience and, despite having only spent five months on the Essex coast, was named runner-up for the club's Player of the Season award at the end of the campaign.

When he returned to Tottenham the now France U21 international caught the eye of Ramos' replacement, Harry Redknapp.

He was named on the bench for numerous Premier League, European and domestic cup matches.

Dorian Dervite in action for France U21s

Unfortunately, contract issues were looming in the background which eventually led to a fall-out with the Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy.

"I really loved to work with Harry Redknapp. There's no bulls**t with him. If you work hard and you're good enough then it doesn't matter whether you're called Ledley King or Dorian Dervite, he will give you a chance," said the defender.

"I had one dilemma because it was my last year when he arrived. The chairman Daniel Levy offered me a contract extension but I wanted more guarantees.

"Redknapp wanted me to sign, but I had an argument with the chairman and it meant I didn't sign the contract. He told me that if I didn't sign the new deal I would not play at all until my contract finished.

"Redknapp had told me that he would give me the chance to play, but the chairman would not let me unless I signed.

"The argument over the contract was because it would have been the same contract as when I was 18.

"Since I was that old I was playing with the France U21s, I was training with the first team all the time. I was doing well and Redknapp was really happy with me so I felt I deserved more."

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Dervite claimed: "The chairman told me it was this deal or I had to leave. He told me 'if I was your dad I would tell you to sign this contract'.

"After that I said I would not sign. At the time, Reading who were in the Championship, wanted to sign me on loan. I asked him to let me go on loan but he said that if I didn't sign the contract I wasn't going anywhere.

"That's how it all ended at Spurs and it's a bit sad it went that way. When I look back I think maybe I should have signed the extension, but I didn't like the way I was treated.

"It's frustrating because when I look back there's a feeling that had I signed it might have been better for me in the future but at the time I was very stubborn. I didn't like the way I was spoken to and I didn't want to make Daniel Levy happy.

"You can't turn back time though and I had a really good time under Harry Redknapp. I learned a lot. I trained with Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Jermain Defoe. To defend against him every day made you a better player. It was a great experience."

Everyone knows about Bale today, the Real Madrid star with four Champions League winner's medals to his name after that world record move from Tottenham.

However, when you ask Dervite if he could see just how good the Welshman was going to be in his day as a young player in Spurs' side, the answer comes without hesitation.

Gareth Bale and Benoit Assou-Ekotto

"No, to be honest no. I knew he was good, but when he joined he was two years younger than me I think. He was good but he was not playing because Assou-Ekotto was better than him at the time," he said.

"Then Harry Redknapp decided to put him as a left winger and that's when he started to become really good.

"Assou-Ekotto was helping him a lot because he would do most of the defensive work so Gareth could do more offensive stuff and he looked very good. He was very good. That partnership was really efficient.

"Benoit was a rock at the back, keeping it simple. Gareth was the magic so it worked really well in unison.

"However, in his first six months, having signed as a left-back, I would not have imagined Gareth at that point would go on to play for Real Madrid."

When his own contract at Spurs came to an end of that 2009/10 season, Dervite, almost 22 at that stage, had a number of options.

Comolli, now working at St Etienne, wanted him to join him at the Ligue 1 club. He was tempted but his agent convinced him that a move to the bigger Villareal would serve him better in the long run.

It didn't work out for Dervite as he failed to graduate from the La Liga outfit's second team past the defenders ahead of him.

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"I can't say how s**t it was that I didn't play because they were just better than me at the time," he admitted.

"There was Gonzalo [Rodriguez], an Argentina international, Mateo Musacchio, who is now at AC Milan, and Cristian Zapata, who had also been at AC Milan."

Once again Dervite faced another crossroads and it coincided with another injury and tragedy in France.

"After 18 months I decided to end my contract because I had problems back home. I lost my best friend and I was missing home," he said.

"I also had a hernia issue with problems in my groin which I couldn't get rid of. I went back home to treat myself for six months and after that I got a call from Chris Powell."

Dervite would spend six years back on these shores - two at Charlton and four at Bolton - taking his English stay to a complete decade.

"To play for Charlton for those two years I'd say were my best football years," he said. "I played maybe 75 games over two years and it was great.

"I proved something to myself. I don't care what other people say, only for myself I wanted to show that I could play in England and at this level. The Championship was and is a very good league."

Dorian Dervite, during his Bolton years, takes on Philippe Coutinho in the FA Cup

The move to Bolton came through a former team-mate.

"I played with Dougie Freedman at Southend - it was his last year. He said he was going to be a manager and that 'when I am I'm going to sign you'," remembered the defender.

"I thought he was joking but then when he became manager of Crystal Palace he called me. It was when I had just come back from my trial at Charlton.

"One day later Dougie called me and said 'I see you've been at Charlton, I want you to train at Palace for a few days, just to see how you are physically and after I'll give you a contract'.

"I apologised and said it was very kind of him but I had given my word to Charlton and that I had told Chris Powell I would sign for them, even though I hadn't yet.

"He appreciated that I was being loyal to Charlton and after two years had passed, he called me again from Bolton and this time I said yes.

"It was frustrating there though because the results were not good enough for the big expectations at Bolton. They wanted promotion and it didn't go well at all.

"Still I spent four years there with ups and downs. It was still a good experience overall because I met some good people there. I really liked living up north, so I don't regret anything.

"The only thing I do regret is that I've been injured at big times in my career. I think otherwise it would have been a bit different, but that's life."

Since leaving Bolton in 2018, Dervite has put in the miles in a short space of time.

Dorian Dervite in action for NAC Breda last year

He's played for Charleroi in Belgium, NAC Breda in the Netherlands and until this week was the captain of Cypriot side Doxa Katokopias.

"I'm a globetrotter! The last two years have been a bit funny. I always try to challenge myself and do something different to see if I can make it," he said.

"In Belgium the club was only one hour from my home. I didn't have the chance to play even one game though. I don't want to say too much but in this club where that has been a bit of a scandal I didn't even get a chance. It wasn't fair.

"Then I went to Holland but the team was struggling when I arrived. They were bottom of the league. I could feel straight away the lack of motivation and desire among the players.

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He added: "I've played well and ended up becoming the captain of the club after six months. I had a really good relationship with the president but we've had three coaches in six months so you can see how it is.

"I actually ended my contract two days ago. They didn't pay me all of my money, but I appreciate what's happening to football clubs at the moment. It's chaos for everyone and I know it's financially difficult for the club so I told them I'd take less than I should have.

"I'm going to leave and go home and my baby, he needs to see his family. The priority is now to get a flight back to France and then next season I'm open to a new challenge and we'll see where I go. I don't mind.

"I would love to come back to England. Maybe someone will read this article and remember me! We'll see what challenge comes up."

Dorian Dervite in action for Spurs back in 2009

As he awaits that flight back to France and hopes for another fresh start in his career once football returns, his thoughts naturally return to Spurs.

"I can see the club is getting bigger and bigger each year. I'm so happy for them, to see them developing," he said.

"For Jose Mourinho to be at Tottenham now shows that the club is one of the top ten in the world because he would not go outside of the world's top ten. The club is going places.

"I think Daniel Levy has to maybe give a bit more wages to the big players so they would be happy to come. I know something about that!

"He's doing well though so I cannot say much, although we haven't had a trophy since the League Cup and Woodgate scoring against Chelsea.

"It's a matter of time though and the club is getting bigger and bigger each year. Let's hope that next season, because we don't know if the rest of this season is going to happen, they do even better.

"I'm so glad to have been part of this club. I know I did not do much at all but I wore the shirt and I'm really proud of that when I look back at my career.

"The new stadium and the new training ground are both amazing and I'm so fortunate to say I played for Tottenham Hotspur."